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| Date | Description |
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05-31-07 |
Sam came over a few days ago and gave me an opinion on the poor running issue... He figures I didn't set the (main jet) needles correctly when I rebuilt the carbs. I reset the needles to the third slot and went for a test ride. That seems to have fixed it! Now, to get ir reinspected (inspection ran out in April) and tuned in... |
Late winter 07 |
Rebuilt the carburetors. I took them apart and had Sam clean them in his little ultrasonic parts cleaner. So, they are... ULTRAclean! I rebuilt them and upgraded them to the independent float kit offered by Bing. It is an indulgence, sure, but they promise improved fuel mileage so eventually it will pay for itself, right? Upon reinstallation and test driving, I found that there was a horrendous flat spot int he power band. Coming off-idle and through the lower portion of the rev range it simply was all flat and non-pulling. I don't know why this is, though I have long suspected an issue with the advance unit. |
05-03-06 |
I seem to have solved my starter problem by replacing the battery. I bought a new universal battery from the local battery warehouse (www.tristatebattery.com). Here's the story as I related it to some friends in an e-mail. After 1 year it is dead. My so-feared "charging" or "starter" issue seems to have been nothing more than a battery problem. It would show as fully charged on the little Battery Tender dealie, but would barely make the starter click. Bike ran kinda crappy too. So I took the WestCo battery into the battery warehouse place here in Newark (www.tristatebattery.com) and said I needed one the same size, the same power rating, but not the same crappy. Battery-warehouse-counter-guy scowled at the battery for a moment and then asked "What's it for?" I replied, "A '71 BMW motorcycle." That earned me a raised eyebrow. 45 seconds later he returns with a "universal" battery that is ab-so-freaking-lutely identical in size and shape. The posts are about half as thick, but same power rating. He says "Well look at that!" and then goes on to explain that there is no publicized sealed battery upgrade for the old BMW bikes. However, since I walked in with one, there clearly IS one. He put a note in his computer so now anyone who comes in asking will benefit from the newfound knowledge. He says that really all WestCo has done is take this universal battery, upgrade the posts and slap their own label on it. The universal battery is intended to be used as a backup battery for house alarm systems. Dad and I have been using these batteries in the Formula S for years! I don't know why I didn't recognize it before. They are definitely strong little batteries if you consider that we are only on our second battery in about 10 years and the torture they are put through in the Formula S (where they often have to crank, crank, crank and we run a total-loss electrical system). Battery-warehouse-counter-guy says he stocks 900 of these batteries! So, I got the same crappy battery, but I know it really is NOT crappy due to my other experiences with it. I'll chalk it up to the fact that I did not winterize the bike this past winter. I didn't pull the battery out and put it on a charger so it probably froze or something. Also, since it cost !!ONE-THIRD!! of the WestCo battery, who cares if it is crappy?
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| 04-12-06 | I started repairing my centerstand. I get a kick out of this bike and I think it is neat and all that but I've got some issues... First, I am clearly NOT a motorcycle mechanic yet. It took me forever to figure out a way to get the bike to stand on its own (no falling!) so I could remove the centerstand. The sidestand is useless, as it just folds up and the bike falls over, no matter how close to vertical it is set by spacing with bits of wood or what have you (that thing is coming off just as soon as I figure out how). Eventually, I got enough bits of wood under the oil pan to take the weight off the centerstand. It was really tippy though, so I braced it with jackstands under the jugs. I hadn't even gotten to working on the thing yet and I was already cursing motorcycles in general. !@#$%& Cars don't fall over when you walk away from them. So finally, (secondly) I start to remove the two bolts that hold the centerstand on. Unscrewing, unscrewing... And they run right into the exhaust! Crap. That's a stupid design. So, I take off the little clamp/bracket widget that holds exhaust ot the chassis near the centerstand. The exhaust however won't budge, because it is also held nearer the rear. Going back there, there is a bracket bolted to the exhaust with two bolts. That bracket is held to the chassis with... 2 bolts? Why not just make the bracket correct the first time and eliminate the intermediate bracket and two bolts? Another stupid design. With those removed, I can tweak the exhaust enough to just get the left side centerstand bolt out... Sprang! Moving to the right side now... When I tweak the exhaust it runs into the brake pedal... Oh come ON! No amount of tweakage or pedal manipulation will get it to clear. Remove brake pedal pivot and brake pedal to get the last smidgen of clearance and just barely get the right side centerstand bolt out. Sprang-again! Wiggle centerstand down past the sump and knock the springs off. That was probably supposed to be done in an earlier step but since I am working on a bleeding motorcycle I couldn't really reach in there and get at them. There's all manner of pieces in the way. Forget it, I figured they'd pop off when they were ready and they did. Damn. I am NO motorcycle mechanic. This is going to be a PITA to get back on and I can't believe all the things you have to remove or loosen or tweak just to get a simple part off. Stupid design. So I get the stand in my vice and look at why it is collapsing. Well, there are cracks in both sides of the left tube along the bend. I heat things a little and beat and bang to get the thing back into the right shape and to get the cracks to close up. Then I go to weld the cracks closed... 
CRAP! I must have scared it! I point the flame in the general direction of this thing and the metal just runs away and dissapears into a big nothingness hole! Holy-meltaway-moly this is thin material! Crazy thin. What were they thinking? Stupid design. At best, I can imagine it has rusted from within, but how did moisture get in there in the first place? If it got in there through some hole left during manufacture... Well that would be a stupid design. If it got in there because of a hole worn in the tubing from regular use then the tubing was too thin to begin with... Definitely a stupid design. And why... Why is the bend not supported by some gusseting? It doesn't need it for frame clearance, I checked. Couldn't see any interference. Either I am blind or... Yep, stupid design. 
So, I fabbed up some guesseting from really thin sheet steel (trying to match the current wall thickness of the tubing) and welded one side on. That was a real challenge to my welding skills. The metal kept dissapearing into spacial gaps in the rift of motorcylce mechanikery and I ended up manufacturing tubing from welding rod half of the time. In some cases, I had to cold-lay a weld rod bead onto the material just so there would be enough material to act as a heatsink while I welded the seam. I taught myself some new gas welding techniques yesterday, that's for certain. Then I welded on a 1/8" thick x 1/2" wide strip of steel to the bottom of the bend to act as a wear strip and hopefully give this thing some longevity. 
When I was working on the second leg's gusset, I ran out of acetylene. Oxy is low too I think. I'll get it refilled today and fire up the torch as soon as I can get out to the garage again. Who knows, when it is all done and painted I might go to try putting it back on and find I have to remove the horn or the taillight or something equally inane to get enough room for some obscure bolt that holds some intermediate spacing bracket to clamp something that doesn't work in place... I wouldn't be at all suprised. I'm not a bad racecar mechanic but I am no motorcycle mechanic. -STEFAN |
07-21-04 |
Ordered a whole slew of parts to rebuild the front shocks from Bucky at Bob's BMW. |
07-20-04 |
Ordered new tires. http://www.competitionaccessories.com $183.90 |
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Ordered a new battery from Westco. $92.95 |
Ran it out of old gas, put new gas in. |
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Charged it up and started it... checked oil first. |
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